I Remember You: A Ghost Story,
by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Although this author’s name is difficult to spell or pronounce, her horror mystery is as good as any of Stephen King’s. This novel scared the pants off me. But how I love that delicious feeling of being terrified out of my mind! I always have, ever since my childhood, when my brother and I would sit on the sofa together and hide our little bodies under a blanket, with only our heads peeking through, to watch the Friday Night Fright movies — “The Mummy’s Ghost,” “Dracula,” “The Blob,” and sundry other horror flicks.
Translated from the Icelandic, Sigurdardottir’s novel begins with a skipper taking three passengers on a boat to a “deserted village way up north in the middle of nowhere, without electricity or heat, and the only way back by sea.” The three passengers are Katrin, her husband Gardar, and their friend Lif—a widow whose deceased husband was Gardar’s best friend. Their goal? To renovate an old house into a guesthouse. Tourists come to the village in the summer to relax, hike, and fish; and rentals are scarce. The project was originally dreamed up by the two men, and the two women are now half-heartedly trying to help Gardar see it through.
A second plot begins in Chapter 2, with an entirely different set of characters: Freyr the psychiatrist and his estranged wife, Sara; and policewoman Dagny. By the end of the novel, it becomes clear how all these characters’ stories are related. A missing little boy and his fate ties it all together. When you discover how and why, the realization packs a wallop. I would call this novel creepy and atmospheric, since the cold and the isolation and the dark winter play a great part in its impact. Prior to reading I REMEMBER YOU, I’d just finished reading Stephen King’s novel, ‘SALEM’S LOT, and I found Sigurdardottir’s ghost story every bit as frightening.